The Working Dog

One of my Twitter followers is always showing pictures of his hunting dogs and those pictures remind me of my father and his hunting dogs but in my house, they were called "bird dogs." My father only hunted the elusive grouse and quail. Pops started training his dogs when they were about eight to ten weeks old and he finally settled on Brittany Spaniels as his dogs of choice. He would not turn down any good dog but he said that the Brittany Spaniels were easier to train and not as "hard headed." I was not a hunter and I never carried a gun but I liked going out into the fields and the woods just to watch my father work with his dogs. Watching my fathers and his dog hunt a covey of grouse was a well choreographed thing of beauty. His dog Lady probably would have moon walked to where the birds were if he wanted her to.